Chapter 7
“Mom!”
Nothing.
“Lily!”
The line stayed open.
I could hear a car horn blaring continuously.
Then footsteps.
A man’s voice.
“Get the girl.”
I stopped breathing.
“Lily!”
Blake grabbed another phone.
“Trace this call now!”
Through my phone, I heard my mother groaning.
Then Lily crying.
“No! Daddy!”
I screamed her name.
A stranger picked up the phone.
For two seconds, I heard breathing.
Then he hung up.
I stared at the screen.
Blake was already moving.
“We have the location.”
Police vehicles poured out of the storage facility.
I got into Blake’s car.
He didn’t argue.
The crash site was twelve minutes away.
It felt like twelve years.
My mother’s SUV had slammed into a guardrail.
The driver’s door was open.
Blood streaked the airbag.
No Lily.
No mother.
Her phone lay beneath the car.
Tire marks from another vehicle cut across the road.
I couldn’t stand.
Blake caught me.
“Daniel.”
“They took her.”
“We don’t know that yet.”
“I heard them.”
Crime-scene officers moved around us.
One found Lily’s stuffed rabbit twenty feet from the car.
I picked it up.
Its ear was torn.
I pressed it against my face.
“I promised her.”
Blake crouched beside me.
“We’re going to find her.”
I looked at him.
“You better.”
A patrol officer called out.
“We’ve got a witness!”
A delivery driver had seen the crash.
He described a black Chevrolet Suburban.
Two men.
They pulled my mother from the SUV.
Then took Lily.
“Was my mother alive?”
“Yes,” the witness said. “She was fighting.”
That gave me one breath of hope.
He had captured part of the license plate on his dashcam.
Police sent out an alert.
Then Blake’s phone rang.
He listened.
His face changed.
“Michael’s been found.”
My heart lurched.
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“Hospital.”
We drove there.
Michael had been discovered unconscious behind a warehouse, beaten badly but alive.
His face was swollen.
One arm was broken.
When I entered the hospital room, he looked at me and started crying.
“Lily?”
“Taken.”
He closed his eyes.
“No.”
“And Mom.”
He tried to sit up.
Pain folded him in half.
“Who did this to you?”
“I don’t know their names.”
“Vanessa?”
“She ordered it.”
“You know that?”
“I heard them talking.”
I moved closer.
“Tell me everything.”
Michael looked at Blake.
“Can we trust him?”
Blake’s jaw tightened.
I said, “Right now, yes.”
Michael nodded.
“Vanessa’s had someone inside the police department for years.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“How do you know?”
“Because Emily’s first complaint disappeared.”
I stared at him.
“What complaint?”
“The week before she died, she reported being followed.”
Blake frowned.
“There’s no record.”
“Exactly.”
Michael took a painful breath.
“She called me because Daniel was traveling. I told her I’d help.”
I felt anger rising.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because Emily asked me not to until we knew who was involved.”
“She died!”
“I know!”
Michael started crying harder.
“You think I don’t know?”
I stepped back.
He continued.
“The night before the crash, I took Emily to a hotel because she believed someone had entered your house.”
“The key card.”
“Yes.”
“Were the pictures of her with another man fake?”
“Yes. The man was Ana’s friend. He was helping move Emily between locations.”
“Why did Vanessa have your hotel key?”
“I lost it that night.”
“Convenient.”
“I know how it sounds.”
“What happened the next morning?”
“Emily left before I woke up.”
“Why?”
“She got a message.”
“From who?”
“She thought it was you.”
My skin turned cold.
“What did it say?”
“That Lily was sick and needed her.”
I had sent no such message.
“She drove home?”
“She tried.”
“And crashed.”
Michael nodded.
“I didn’t know until police called.”
“You told police?”
“I told one detective everything.”
Blake asked, “Name?”
Michael looked at him.
“Detective Harold Pierce.”
Blake went still.
I noticed.
“You know him?”
“He retired last year.”
Michael gave a bitter laugh.
“That’s what you think.”
Blake’s expression hardened.
“What does that mean?”
“I saw Pierce two nights ago.”
“Where?”
“With Vanessa.”
The room went silent.
Blake stepped into the hallway and started making calls.
I looked at Michael.
“Why did you text me not to trust Mom?”
“Because she gave Vanessa information for years.”
“She didn’t know who Vanessa was.”
“That’s what she says.”
“You don’t believe her?”
Michael stared at the ceiling.
“I don’t know what I believe anymore.”
I understood.
Then my phone rang.
Unknown number.
Everyone froze.
I answered.
“Hello?”
Vanessa.
“Daniel.”
My body went rigid.
“Where is Lily?”
“Safe.”
“If you touched her—”
“I’ve never wanted to hurt Lily.”
I nearly screamed.
“You locked her in a closet!”
“That was punishment.”
“You abused her.”
“I prepared her.”
“For what?”
“For losing you.”
My blood froze.
“What?”
“You’re finally going to understand what it feels like to have a family stolen from you.”
I gripped the phone.
“Where is my daughter?”
“Bring me what was in storage unit 318.”
“What?”
“The original will.”
Police had taken it as evidence.
“I don’t have it.”
“Get it.”
“I can’t.”
“Then Lily stays with me.”
My vision went red.
“Put her on the phone.”
“No.”
“Vanessa!”
She became quiet.
“You still don’t understand.”
“Understand what?”
“Our father stole everything from my mother.”
“I was a child. Michael was a child.”
“And I was a child too.”
Her voice cracked for the first time.
“He visited me twice a year and called himself Uncle Robert so nobody would know. Then he promised me I’d belong to the family someday.”
I said nothing.
“He changed his mind because Emily told him I was unstable.”
“Were you threatening her?”
“She stole my father.”
“You’re talking about my fiancée.”
“She convinced him to cut me out.”
“You married me knowing I was your brother.”
Silence.
Then Vanessa said coldly, “I married the Carter name.”
I felt sick.
“You’re insane.”
“No. I was patient.”
“You killed Emily?”
Michael’s monitor beeped faster.
Vanessa laughed quietly.
“That’s what you want to believe.”
“Answer me.”
“I didn’t touch her car.”
“Who did?”
“Bring me the will.”
“Vanessa—”
“And one more thing.”
“What?”
“Come alone.”
“I’m not trading evidence for my daughter without proof she’s alive.”
A pause.
Then Lily’s terrified voice filled the phone.
“Daddy?”
I nearly collapsed.
“Lily!”
“Daddy, Grandma’s hurt.”
“I know, baby. Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Where are you?”
“I don’t know.”
Vanessa took the phone back.
“That’s enough.”
“Please.”
The word came out before I could stop it.
“Vanessa, whatever you want from me, leave Lily out of it.”
“That’s what Emily said.”
My blood stopped.
“What?”
“The night before she died.”
“You spoke to her?”
“She begged too.”
“Where?”
Vanessa ignored the question.
“You have two hours.”
The call ended.
Blake rushed back in.
“We couldn’t trace it long enough.”
I stared at him.
“She wants the original will.”
“We’re not giving her evidence.”
“She has Lily.”
“We can make a copy.”
“She’ll know.”
Michael spoke from the bed.
“No.”
We turned.
“She doesn’t want the paper.”
“What?”
“She wants what’s hidden inside it.”
Blake frowned.
“What’s hidden inside a will?”
Michael looked at me.
“Dad used his estate documents to hide account codes.”
“Account codes for what?”
“An offshore trust.”
I stared at him.
“How much?”
Michael swallowed.
“More than two hundred million dollars.”
I almost laughed from disbelief.
“Dad didn’t have two hundred million offshore.”
“Yes, he did.”
“And you knew?”
“I found out after Emily died.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because the trust wasn’t ours.”
“Whose was it?”
Michael looked at me.
“Vanessa’s.”
I froze.
“Then why does she need the will?”
“Because Dad locked the account after she threatened Emily.”
Michael struggled to breathe through the pain.
“He changed the recovery code.”
“To what?”
“I don’t know.”
“But Vanessa thinks it’s inside the original will?”
“Yes.”
Blake crossed his arms.
“So this is about money.”
Michael shook his head.
“No.”
“What do you mean?”
“If she only wanted money, she would have kidnapped Daniel years ago.”
He looked directly at me.
“She wants him to choose.”
“Choose what?”
Michael’s eyes filled with fear.
“Dad made her choose once.”
I felt cold.
“Between what?”
“Money and family.”
Michael swallowed.
“She chose the money.”
I stared at him.
May you like
“And now?”
“Now she wants Daniel to choose between the money and Lily.”
